Devon Rex

In the 1960s, a feral cat with a curly coat was spotted in an abandoned tin mine near Buckfastleigh in Devon. Despite numerous attempts, its capture proved impossible. In 1960, it bred with a tortoiseshell and white feral cat and a litter of several kittens, including a young male with curly fur like his father. The birth took place in a field behind Beryl Cox's garden, a worker at the RSPCA. She decided to adopt the curly-haired kitten and called it Kirlee. According to another version of the story, Beryl Cox would have managed to adopt Kirlee's father and had him mate with one of her cats, who gave birth to Kirlee. For about ten years, there has already been a breed of cats with curly hair called cornish rex. Beryl Cox, having seen photographs of Kallibunker, the first cornish rex, in an article in the Daily Mirror, contacted the breeders of this breed and sold them Kirlee for £25, with the aim of improving their cats. However, all kittens born from Kirlee and cornish rex had straight hair. It is thus understood that the gene responsible for this coat is not the same in cornish rex and in Kirlee. Test crosses show that the Devon Rex mutation, which is recessive, is slightly different from that of the Cornish Rex. In order to fix this particular mutant gene, Kirlee was bred with his daughters, following a breeding program similar to that of the Cornish Rex. Kirlee, at the end of a very prolific life, died in 1970 in a car accident. Alison Ashford is the founding breeder of this breed, under the affix Annelida. In 1967, the Cornish Rex and Devon Rex were recognized as two different breeds by the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF). The International Cat Federation (FIFé) recognized the Devon Rex in 1968. In North America, the Devon Rex and Cornish Rex shared the same standard of the Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) until 1979. In 2015, the Devon Rex was the twentieth most popular breed among the 55 breeds registered by the LOOF. In the United States, it represented the twelfth most popular breed among 47 breeds in 2014, and in the United Kingdom, the fourteenth breed among forty recognized by the GCCF in 2014.

Character traits are not described in the standards, they remain perfectly individual and are a function of each cat's history. The Devon Rex is often described as playful, mischievous and cheeky. It would be very close to humans and would seek a lot of attention. According to Christiane Sacase, curly-haired cats are very active and need lots of space and play to exercise. She describes them as confident, attached to their master and intelligent. Rex cats would be easy to train, would tolerate travel calmly and tolerate being held on a leash. According to Bruce Fogle, the Devon Rex is sociable, talkative and active, and can be trained. According to Desmond Morris, the most commonly used qualifiers to describe the Devon Rex are "friendly, lively, affectionate, playful, intelligent, mischievous, enterprising, active, curious and extroverted". Several authors have argued that the Devon Rex behaves like a dog: it retrieves objects, follows its master and wags its tail when happy. However, for this last argument, behavioral descriptions lead Desmond Morris to believe that the tail movement is explained by the simple swinging movement necessary to maintain the cat's balance.

The fine coat of Devon Rex makes them feel the cold, so care should be taken to keep them warm. Their metabolism would be very demanding in energy and this would result in an important appetite, according to Desmond Morris. Due to the low number of guard hairs, shedding is very minimal. People allergic to cats would tolerate the Devon Rex more easily. Its coat requires little maintenance. Brushing should be gentle, so as not to damage the curls of the coat.